


Better Days

by days4daisy



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-04-30 23:30:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14507823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/days4daisy/pseuds/days4daisy
Summary: ****** INFINITY WAR SPOILERS ******Thor sees the sun. Then, he sees nothing.





	Better Days

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize, all, this is pure self-indulgence because I needed to cry after this movie. So many wonderful offerings post-Infinity War! Here's my contribution.

The universe is static in Thor’s ears.

He barely hears them. “Hold on, Thor! _Now, Danvers, now, now, **now**_!” There is much blood, and many broken things. Wind slices Thor’s face, and lightning burns his veins. Thunder roars overhead like a pack of wild lions.

Stormbreaker finds its home. The mighty skull of the Titan bears his wrath in splintered bone. Thanos’ fist also strikes true. Thor cannot tell where the tyrant ends and he begins. His head is light, his body heavy. Through his chest, he feels an incredible pain.

“We got him, Thor!” The winds scream and the heavens open.

He’s falling then; they are falling.

The storm retreats with a final whimper. Around Thor, a wreckage of trees spirals into view. The glen’s floor is a dusting of leaves and blood. 

“Thor. _Thor!_ No - no, no, _no_!” Sweet Rabbit. Thor smiles as he falls. 

Clouds part to blue skies, and the sun shines through. How bright it is, more alive than the most glorious spring noon on Asgard. Thor cannot recall a more perfect day. The only darkness he finds is in the eyes of the Titan - dull, dimmed, then nothing at all.

Thor hears fragments.

“Oh god - Buck!”  
“Sam? Sam!”  
“I am Groot?"  
“Mr. Stark... Mr. Stark, what happened? It was - it was so dark, Mr. Stark.”

Then, “Hang on, Thor, _hang on_!”

Thor’s landing breaks what remains of his body. He sees the sun. Then, he sees nothing.

***

Long grasses turn in the whisper of a summer breeze. A nearby brook tickles Thor’s ears. The sun is warm on his face.

An ache tests the limits of Thor’s temples. He winces eyes open to a cloudless sky. A lonely field surrounds him, stretching far as he can see. Thor touches his face. The mechanical implant Rabbit gifted to him is gone. It is Thor’s own second eye he sees through. The lashes twitch at the leafing of a book’s page.

“You, brother, have seen better days.”

Thor sits up with a start, and pain shoots through his limbs. Odd, though. It is not the sharp hurt he expects after battling the mighty Thanos. Thor’s ache is that of limbs long unused, or a fitful sleep without proper bedding. He clutches his chest. His hand finds no hole where the Titan speared him, no sign of blood or the slightest bruise. Thor’s clothes are strange. His armor is gone, replaced by a white tunic and cotton pants. His feet are bare, teased by the the long grasses. 

Three paces away, Loki lounges on a rock, his fingers buried in a leather-bound book. He looks up from reading, brow quirked in amusement. Impossible, but it is him, or so it seems. His brother, in his favorite green resting blouse. His hair shifts gently in the breeze.

With shaking fingers, Thor plucks a piece of gravel from the soil. It bounces off Loki’s chest and lands with a soft thump on the open page of his book.

Loki smirks. “You could have just asked me,” he says.

“No,” Thor gasps, breathing fast. He pushes himself to his feet, a struggle on aching limbs. His body feels as uncoordinated as a young one taking their first steps.

Loki sets his book aside. “Easy, Thor,” he chides lightly. “It takes time.”

Thor cannot ask what takes time; all he can say is, “You’re here.”

Loki joins him in the grasses. His movements are sure, the confident stride Thor has come to know so well. It is him - his brother. Alive somehow, not a hint of bruising around his neck. The skin is flawless, a long stretch of milk white. Loki is here, and he is beautiful. Thor looks upon him in stunned silence; his eyes begin to fill.

Loki thumbs the first tear from Thor’s cheek. “Come now,” he sighs, “surely you don’t intend to greet Mother with wet eyes.”

“What?” Thor’s voice breaks on the word.

He knows. Perhaps he knew from the start.

“This is,” Thor breathes, “but - our family, our friends, where-”

“Waiting for you,” Loki says. “Consumed with talk of your bravery and strength. Your selflessness. Your sacrifice. Exhausting, really.” A smile plays at his lips. “It will be worse now that you’re here. The mighty Thor, come home at last. Damn you.”

“It has not been long since you left,” Thor tells him quietly. “Every day has been agony, but it has not been long.”

Loki rolls his eyes. “Too long,” he says, “though there’s much to do here. Stories to hear, sights to see, and much to read. Accounts of history - _all_ history, Thor, captured in tomes far as the eye can see.” The thrill of it warms his face.

Thor seizes this face between his hands. “I failed you,” he whispers. His fingers tremble. “You were right in front of me. You were there, but - no steel should have held me from you, Loki. I-”

“I wasn’t sure I would come here,” Loki admits, and Thor falls silent. “I studied little of the Jotnar, well-read though I was. As a child, I thought them beasts. Then, I despised them for the truth of my parentage. I knew nothing of their afterlife. Did they even believe in one? And if they did, would I find my way, or would the beasts of Hel await me? At times, I’m still unsure I belong here.” He chuckles. “How funny, to question fate even after it arrives.”

Thor’s hands drift to Loki’s neck. His thumbs trace the column of his brother's throat.

“I was waiting for you,” Loki tells him. “Here, where they said you would be.”

Thor’s laughter wars with tears. “Are you a watcher now, Loki?”

“Heimdall’s eyes have earned their rest, wouldn't you say?” Loki draws a thumb beside Thor’s healed eye. “You are my idiot brother,” he says. “For you, I waited.”

Thor’s mirth stutters, and he turns away. “Gods, Loki-” His voice shatters on a surprised breath. Loki is on one knee before him. “What are you doing?”

Loki takes Thor’s hand between his own, jarringly gentle. “Undying fidelity,” he says. “I promised you that day, Thor. I may be the worst brother-”

“Don't.”

“But in this, I spoke true. And still do.” He kisses the center knuckle on Thor’s hand. “My king,” he says.

Thor shakes his head. “No, Loki,” he says, ragged.

“Yes,” Loki counters, eyes raised. “God of Mischief I’ll always be, but my loyalty is yours. Asgard’s Storm.”

“Stand up. Please.”

Loki bows his head to Thor’s hand. “I have to know,” he says, “did I do right by you at last?" His lips graze Thor's fingers. "It's the one question I can't be rid of. The one thing I-”

Thor cannot bear it; he takes Loki in his arms. Loki startles, and they fall in a tangle. The grasses are sweet to Thor's nose. Laughter and tears mingle in the summer breeze. 

Loki palms the empty air beside Thor’s face. Open space becomes long, golden hair spiraled on Loki’s fingers. “Better,” Loki decides with a satisfied nod.

Thor grins as he once did as a child. He too strokes Loki’s hair, black strands sifting through his fingers. “Even here, your magic works wonders.”

“You’ll find your own with practice,” Loki tells him. “You can take any form you please here. Become a child again, or revel in the wildness of adolescence.”

Thor smiles; his brother’s hair a beautiful distraction. “You look as you did when I last saw you,” he observes. “No return to youth for you?”

Loki shrugs a shoulder. “I am my best self,” he says. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

Thor rests his forehead to Loki’s. “Your selves are all you,” he says, “and I love every one, grating as they may be.”

“As I love yours, my king,” Loki returns mildly, “ox-stubborn and stupid as they are.” His eyes glitter, and Thor smacks his chest. They turn, and they grapple. The grasses twist under their struggling weight. Loki grins triumph when he straddles Thor’s waist. Thor curls a hand over his neck and draws him close.

Their kiss is warm and easy, as if they were never parted. “Forgive me,” Thor says in the slim space between them. “I failed you that day, Loki.” His fingers tap the nape of Loki’s neck.

The sentiment draws a scoff. “Must it be your failure? Or, just this once, will you let me have my victory?” Thor frowns. Loki combs hair from his face, undeterred. “Credit me with this at least. Does the sun not shine on us again, brother, as I promised it would?”

“It does,” Thor agrees. Fresh tears fall, and he makes no attempt to hide them. “What would I do without you by my side to point out the obvious?”

“Lucky for you, dearest sibling,” Loki ghosts a kiss to his lips, “you'll never have to find out again, will you?”

*The End*


End file.
